Posts Tagged "friendship"

From designer babies to women whose genitals smell like peaches, 2014 graced us with a taste of the hope, hype and superficiality of business as usual in Silicon Valley. It is tempting to listen to those who tell us that there is a gene-hack to solve every “problem”—that DNA is just a code to personalize [...]

Eleonore Pauwels is a Senior Research Associate with the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Her primary focus is a comparative and critical analysis of the EU and US approaches towards the societal governance of synthetic biology. She is also examining the challenges that new forms of biotechnology pose for political and public policy organizations, and the regulatory innovations that emerge alongside developments in cutting edge genomics and biotechnologies. Her research focuses on responsible innovation, risk communication, citizen participation in research and technical controversies, as well as knowledge-sharing between epistemic cultures within and outside of the laboratory.

Jim Dratwa is a global fellow with the Wilson Center and head of Ethics in Science and New Technologies within the Bureau of European Policy Advisers. His research and publications address the interconnections between knowledge, values and action. Dratwa has held several positions at the European Commission and now heads the ethics sector in BEPA (the Bureau of European Policy Advisers to the President of the European Commission) and acts as EC representative in the relevant organizations dealing with the ethical implications of science and new technologies (OECD, Council of Europe, UN agencies).

How well do we know ourselves? The intuition that you are your own best judge is strong, yet flawed. The prevailing wisdom in social psychology today is that we are incorrigible self-enhancers. We tend to think we are more attractive, intelligent and agreeable than we really are. Conversely, depressed people have been found to make [...]

As we all sit down tonight to feast on turkey and pumpkin pie, many of us will be going around the table giving thanks for our everyday sources of gratitude, like friendships, relationships, and good health. Luckily, there are actually plenty of reasons why Thanksgiving itself can help maintain and improve those very things for [...]

Melanie Tannenbaum is a doctoral candidate in social psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received an M.A. in social psychology in 2011. Her research focuses on the science of persuasion & motivation regarding political, health-related, and environmental behavior. You can add her on Twitter or visit her personal webpage. Melanie can be found on Twitter as @melanietbaum.